School's Out!

And now the bickering begins! Whew! They've not been out of school even an hour and I've had to send them to their rooms! Time for a schedule! The fact that my oldest DD has entered the wonderful world of pms doesn't help things either.

I leave you w/a picture of my cutie patootie youngest and what he was last studying at preschool.


Are you sure I just can't lock 'em in a closet for the next 10 weeks? (just kidding!)

Has anyone seen Nemo?

We are having a "Finding Nemo" crisis here. C brought me disc two of the two disc set (he's broken disc one finally) sometime yesterday, and now we can't find it anywhere. He REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY infinity wants to watch it. And we can't find it anywhere. Not the disc two, not the copy we made to watch in the car, nothing. He's been asking for this movie since yesterday morning, and it's getting ugly around here.

Please, if you find Nemo, let me know...asap!

Um, yeah. Catching up.

So.

Yes, I'm still here. Things are busy. Aren't they busy for you? I read an article recently in Domino (at least I think it was Domino) about how we are ALL crazy busy, so quit complaining and thinking you are special. That was the gist of it. Made me think about my complaining about being busy like I was unique in the world about my busyiness. Not so, my friend!

My parents have arrived safely. Spent some nice time w/my Mom this week while my Dad was in Portland for training. Now I'm gearing up for a busy week with 3 classes at Stampin' Cat, 2 school concerts (for two different children) a dress rehearsal for my own concert next week at church, as well as a Girls Camp Kick-off for me and DD on Saturday BEFORE two of my 3 classes. Plus my laundry is overflowing, despite the fact that I've been faithfully doing 1-2 loads daily ala Fly Lady. And I have some dishes left over from yesterday. DH did all the cooking and 95% of the dishes. These are some overflow dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, and I pretty much promised DH when we got married that he wouldn't have to wash dishes by hand if I could help it (since he hated it so, and it doesn't bother me). Plus I still have pound cake, fresh strawberries and real whipped cream I could have as a treat (if I wanted) when the dishes are done.

Tonight, we take our first foray in to the world of Letterboxing. Kinda looking forward to it. Go to http://www.letterboxing.org for more information. Should be fun for all! I want to get more active as a family, and this seems like a nice way to ease into it.

Speaking of getting active, I tried out my Mother's Day shoes this morning and easily walked just over 2 and a quarter miles. I've been barely making 2 miles, and suffering from some ankle pain from an old injury. Not so today! Lovely shoes, and I feel like such an athlete! I'm gearing up for a 5K walk that our church will sponsor in August. Plus I consider it my HBP medicine. I started walking on Feburary 7th--barely making a mile and a half. Now I'm easily doing 2.25 miles in the same time frame. Plus I'm off my meds for high blood pressure and loving having more stamina. I'd love to say that I'm melting away the pounds, but that's not so yet. Probably has something to do with the chocolate I can't stop eating....I've got some strong opinions about the weight loss racket, but I'm saving that for another blog post.

More later! Bye for now!

This is what 37 looks like

Happy birthday to me! (April 30). This is my fav. self portrait for my annual April shoot.

Enjoy!

I've been Tagged!

My first tag in the blogosphere! I'm so excited! I was tagged by Lindsay, an online friend of mine who made it pretty far in the recent MMIdol contest (yay Linds!). So in my first official tag, I'm to come up with 7 random facts about me and then tag seven others.

Here goes:

1. We've lived in our house in Albany for just over 4 years now. I'll be 37 later this month, and this is the longest span in my entire life where I've had the same address. Yep, about every two years I get a little restless. No, we have no plans to move anytime soon.

2. I was a contestant on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in April, 2000, during it's heyday, when it was on 4 nights a week (or something like that). Yes I met Regis Philbin, No, I didn't get into the "hot seat". We had a carryover contestant who took most of our air time. The only other guy who beat me in the practice rounds was in the chair when our filming time ended. He carried over. Statistically speaking, if we'd had the 4 "fastest finger" rounds that were considered "average" for the show, instead of 2, I'd have had a chance at it. Oh well. It was still a cool experience, and one that takes people by surprise when I tell the story.

3. I was on the fencing team at my Junior College. I was the top female fencer on the team. I really loved it, and kinda wished I'd kept up with it.

4. I graduated from highschool 6 weeks after I turned 17. I graduated from Jr. College 3 days BEFORE I turned 19. I ended up going to school for 8 years. I got my AAS, two BS degrees and 9/10ths of a master degree. We won't go into why I didn't finish my masters degree. It's still a little raw.

5. I have 3 kids. Their ages are 12, 8, and 4. I like even numbers.

6. I was once a Mary Kay Sales Director. I lived in a pink bubble and loved it most of the time.

7. I can sing in 5 languages.


Lindsay also added 7 random scrapbooking facts. I liked that idea, so here goes:

1. I started my own online scrabooking store about 3 and a half years ago.

2. I own more Basic Grey patterned paper than any other manufacturer.

3. I was skeptical about how wonderful Bazzill cardstock was. Then I got some. Now I have a lot.

4. I teach scrapbooking and papercrafting classes at Stampin Cat Studio. Lovin' that. I designed a year long series of classes this year called "Paper School" I give a "lecture" on some aspect of scrapbooking and then we make a mini-book using whatever technique or information I taught about. Coming up with 12 different, easy--yet somewhat challenging--MiniBooks that are chock full of products has been a little tricky. Still I really love working there.

5. I've been scrapbooking for about 11 years now.

6. I'm unhappy when I don't get to work on something papercrafty 'cause my life is too busy at the time.

7. I love to empower women through creativity. That's why I teach classes.

Okay....who to tag.....let's try: Tanya, Amy, Kenny, Shell, Karen B. Cami, and Colleen

Ciao!

I'm just going to quit making promises....

Every time I talk about blogging more, and making the promise that I will blog more, I don't. So I'm going to quit making promises.

That business of my Dad's I referred to? It was a job interview. He got the job. I found out on Thursday last week. Spent a good part of Thursday and Friday looking at rental opportunities for my parents. Sunday got the assignment (which I gladfully took--wait--is "gladfully even a word? It is now!) to go check out the 2 houses they'd narrowed their search to. These houses are in Lebanon, OR, about a half hour away from where I live. So Monday I went to take pictures. Called 'em up and made my suggestion on which was the "better" house. (both houses are new, so really, it's all subjective). Monday night they asked for more pictures of the house that I suggested. I said gladfully--Sure! Tuesday morning I found out that my best friend dislocated her knee at the beginning of her exercise class and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance Monday night. Could I watch her kids when she found out when her MRI appointment was? Sure! I said (still pretty gladfully, I mean, she is my best friend). Right after I drove through a raging hailstorm and rainstorm on I-5 to get to the house (which is exactly 30 minutes from my house) I get the call that her appointment was in 45 minutes. Um, Gulp! I rush in the house, take 126 pictures in about 15 minutes, realize that I'm not going to make it back in time to pick up the kids at my gf's house, and call to find out where I can get the kids. Make plans to meet them at the hospital. FLY down the freeway back to Albany, and arrive at the hospital just as Grandma is parking the car. GF is in hospital, kids are still in car. Whew! I made it! I keep them for the next 6 hours. Gladfully.

I'm also busy with church meetings this week. Last night was my quarterly Women's group meeting. Tonight is a rehearsal for a special musical presentation I'm singing at. Tomorrow is a meeting for the yearly girls camp (I'm doing the Crafts w/another girlfriend). While I enjoy these activities, and believe in serving my church, I'm doing these things not so gladfully. I'm also teaching at Stampin' Cat this Saturday, which means I need to have my kits packed and ready, a spiffy color handout w/instructions and pictures (this is something I like to do), AND have the projects/samples done for NEXT month's classes. I also have to get my "lecture" (this is for my year-long Paper School class) done. Plus I'm late for two swaps. This is why I don't often swap. Sunday I go out of town for my yearly scrapbook retreat at Seaside, Oregon. I LOVE this retreat, and I LOVE the gals I go with. I really want to be organized though, and not haul all my scrapcrap w/me. The last time I literally took just about everything I own, 'cause I didn't know what I was going to work on, and wanted to have options. I only made one mini-album for my mom. I used something like 6 pieces of patterned paper, and a set of stamps. And for that I hauled EVERYTHING? Not this time. So that means along w/the service to my parents (gladfully done), service to my gf (also gladfully done), service to my church (mostly gladfully done, but less than the other), planning and executing my class, samples, and handouts (love this, I mean, after all it's my job and I'm good at it. It just ALWAYS takes more time than I think it will), I have to go through my pictures and plan what I will actually use for my Sunday/Monday and Tuesday retreats. If I didn't REALLY want to scrap, I'd just take a couple of books and plan to do nothing! (quite gladfully!, too, I might add). And I didn't even mention the fact that I'm on "Baby Watch" for some fabulously dear friends having their first baby. They've invited me to the delivery room to be Mom support. (Her due date was last sunday, so it could be any day now.) I LOVE that. That I'll do VERY gladfully!

Ah well, I'm sure my busy life isn't much different from anyone else's busy life. Just feels like a lot right now.

So I'll keep plugging away. Gladfully. And then it'll be next week, and something else will start the whole busy process again. 'Cause that's how it goes. It just does. And the best thing we can do is try our best to do the whole thing gladfully. As my Mom likes to say, "When you change your attitude, you change your circumstance."

And that's the other side

Some Pics

Here's me and my Dad. It was so great to see him, even if it only was for a couple of hours. Yes, Joel, H, and I are all wearing green. No, it wasn't planned, nor did we have our holidays mixed up. It was just one of those random family things.

And here's my lovelies in their easter finery. I had to laugh at myself when we got to church 'cause there was one other little boy in the EXACT same shirt and vest combination. And then I found out that 2 more moms had purchased the same shirt and vest combo for their sons. What can I say? We all have excellent taste!

Enjoy the day!

Let Me Sum Up

In the last couple of weeks I:

Survived a mostly stay at home Spring Break. I'll post pics later of some of our activities, which included:

• taking care of 3 guinea pigs and 3 bunny rabbits, now forever known in our family as "The Wonderpets"
• Seeing "Night at the Museum" for the second time at the $1.50 movie theater
• Going to Beverly Beach at the Oregon Coast with cousins
• Multiple Cousin Sleep-overs
• Nintendo Throwdown w/some of my kid's friends

There's more, but that's a good start.

Also, my Dad showed up unannounced from Flagstaff, AZ on Sunday, April Fool's Day. He had some business in Portland, and just decided to drop by. My Dh and kids were perfecting their AFD jokes so when Joel said, "Your Dad's here!" I decided to prove that I wasn't so gullible and retorted, "No he's not! You're totally Lying!" which was immediately followed by, "Oh! Hi Dad!"

I've also been developing some new classes for Stampin' Cat. I'll show pics of those when they are downloaded as well.

We've also had some pretty successful potty-training days. I'll spare you the gory details, but it sufficeth to say that C is turning four this sunday, and I totally expected that he'd be wearing diapers up until he started Kindergarten. Lots of fights, little interest. But not anymore! Tee-hee!

April is my birthday month. I'll be taking my self-portrait this April like I've done the past 2 years. I'll also do another yearly portrait of my kids. Love April! I've set a goal to post more regularly in April as well--I won't say every day, but I will tell my loyal readers that things should be a little more interesting around here!

That's all for now!

The Other Night...

I dreamed about Emily Falconbridge. I've never met her, in person, but I've read about her all over the blogosphere, and I've seen her work in a number of places. She was trying to get to Ali Edwards' house (who lives in Eugene, Oregon, about an hour south of where I live), and she was lost and getting a bit upset, and having the pregnant mommy ferocious hungries. She had her daughter with her. I got her some food, helped her find Ali's address, and even offered to babysit for her, telling her that it was okay that she leave her daughter with me, a total stranger, because we belonged to the same church. She was fine with that. At that point the dream sorta morphed away, with Emily happily on her way, and me babysitting her daughter and feeling all happy to help out someone in need.

I think I've been reading too many blogs.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

My hair is getting really long. I mean really, really, long. I haven't had my hair this long since the birth of my first child. I realized yesterday that I don't know how to have long hair anymore. Now for some backstory.

One of the things on my master list of "Things to do before I die" was to grow out my bangs. I had bangs from the time I was ten years old or thereabouts. The exact timeline is fuzzy, but the fact remains that I had bangs for well over twenty years of my life. I longed for the luscious, free-flowing no bang look. The pull it back in a ponytail ease. The no need for curling to look good, thus avoiding the occasional curling iron burns on the forehead. But alas, every time my bangs got long enough to hit the corners of my eyes, or fly into my eyes when the windows were open as we drove along, I said "Enough!" and cut my bangs again. Finally, after my third child was born, I decided to let my bangs grow at least to my jawline, not matter what. If I couldn't stand them when they hit my jawline, if I hadn't adapted to liking them at all, I'd cut 'em again. But at least I would have grown them out enough to satisfy my list.

Now, about three years later, I have no bangs. My hair is down to the middle of my back. I like it most days. I cut it myself. Partly because I can and partly because I don't want to pay $30 to get an inch trimmed off then ends when they get all yucky. I'm kinda daring myself to see how long I can get it. Sorta of like the end of Thelma and Lousie when they drive off that cliff, I'm heading into the gray area between nice-looking long hair and hair that's just Too Long. I'm thinking of letting it go a few more inches and then donating it to Locks of Love.

But back to my first paragraph: I no longer know how to have long hair. I don't style it. I don't even really own the battery of styling products I used to have. For a long time I didn't even have a hair dryer--I just let it air dry. The longer it got, the more of a problem this was. One Sunday morning, while facing the reality that I was going to church with wet hair and not being happy about it, I seriously considered using the reverse switch on my vacuum cleaner to dry my hair. Seriously. I ended up steaming it mostly dry with my flat iron. When I told this story to my best girlfriend as she dropped off her kids for a little service daycare, she laughed with me. And brought me a new hairdryer when she came back from her Dr's. appointment. And I was grateful.

So I don't know how to have long hair anymore. I'm usually putting it up with a hand-carved wooden hairpick I bought at a craft show or it's in the universally acceptable pony tail (which Entertainment Weekly tells me is now "out", so I'm not sure if I should keep wearing one or just stick with my hairpick). When it's down it's in my way. It's hot and sweaty. It doesn't feel right.

What it all comes down to is that I am craving change in my life. My hair is a metaphor. I love where I am and who I am but I'm ready to build on that and have something else. I'm subscribing to Domino instead of Better Homes and Gardens (although I still sneak peeks at that one when I'm at the library). I'm looking at short haircuts online. I'm going to see how long my hair has to be before I donate it. I'm walking close to two miles every day and looking to carve out time for a daily Pilates routine. I'm going to bed earlier and sleeping better. I'm actually having some success avoiding my much loved sugary/fatty foods. I've been 99% caffeine free for about 3 weeks. I want new CD's to listen to. I'm ready to let go of all of the books I've been hoarding over the years (that's what the Library is for, isn't it!?) so that I can have less clutter around me. I've done the initial purge of my closet and am ready for more. I've given away the baby crib and most of my baby stuff. I had a big clearance sale for all my local friends who wanted cheap scrapbooking supplies. I'm learning all I can about photography so I can start that as another stream of income. We are ripping out the dingy carpet in favor of new hardwood floors. I bought the big Scotch ATG 714 tape gun to replace my beloved Tombow adhesive. IKEA is coming to Portland this summer (which means it'll be about an hour and a half away instead of 4 hours! Hooray! My van has seats that fold flat!) and I am ready to chuck all my furniture and embrace a more Swedish way of life with funky cool stylish (but cheap!) things I can buy flat-packed and put together myself. It's almost as if, at 36-almost-37-years-of-age I'm ready to grow up and have the confidence in myself to back that growing. Going back to my word of the year: I'm ready to DO.

I'm ready for a change. I'm just not sure how to bring it about. Yet. But the fact remains that I am DO-ing, and am ready to DO MORE.

And that's the other side.

Blah....

Feeling rather blah blecky right now.

I sent out about 25 emails to all of my friends that like to scrap/papercraft to invite them to a super clearance sale (mostly I'm just SICK of looking at certain papers and stuff) clean my house (w/my hubby's late night help) and no one came. I also invited the same 25 people to come to a crop at my house tonight. These are the same people that have been asking about a crop for a long time now (I used to have them monthly, but people moved, had conflicts, etc., so I stopped). I think two people will show up tonight. I'm pretty much wallowing in self-pity right now.

It's a good thing we cleaned up our Family Office (we don't have a family room, we have a family office) because DH is going to be ripping out the nasty carpet in our living room over the course of the next two weeks. This will culminate in the install of new hardwood floors in our main living area, the entry way, the eating area, and the kitchen. I'm very excited about this! (the old carpet was truly nasty, and on days where the house was closed up for too long, made the house smell like a combination of old dirt and someone else's sweat. Not pleasant). All of the furniture (piano, antique German armoire {or der Schrank}, 10 ft couch, dining table, chairs, bookcases, tv, etc.) will have to be piled into the office area for a short time while the floor is installed. The plan is for this to happen during spring break, when I'll take the kids and go away for about 5 days. We bought enough flooring (at 97 cent a sq. ft, I might add) to hopefully do the office area too, but that will wait for a bit.

But back to the blahs---after a couple weeks of C working hard to get negative attention (and he does get PLENTY of positive attention, so we aren't sure where this mischievous, PITA streak is coming from ) I was really looking forward to some fun with my friends. I was really hoping to move some of this scrapbooking stuff! Ah well, you've heard the sayings of "the best laid plans...." and what night. When I set this up, I wanted it to be something fun for my friends---I don't want anyone to feel obligated to come. I can't have it both ways.

Still, if you want some Bazzill and SEI buttons for $1.00, or some Urban Lily or Pixel Decor papers for 25 cents a sheet, or a few Bazzill Mono Mini Albums for $1.00, let me know!

And that's the other side.

Love Monkey Stamp

The monkey stamp is made by Rubber Soul. I have the "Monkey Birthday" clear set (so I can make "Monkeyed Around and Missed the Date" belated birthday cards) which I found online HERE. Of course, I bought mine at Stampin' Cat. After years of resisting the lure of stamps, I was quickly sucked back in. Oh well!

Enjoy!

Here's to simple Love Monkeys

I like to make my children's Valentine's cards each year. This year, I only have one in elementary school, and I sort of forgot that V-Day was coming up. I remembered in the nick of time and made these at about 7:00 the night before. YAY for simple! (and lovin' the fact that 8yo boys really aren't that picky....at least mine isn't....).

I was having so much fun that I decided to make some Love Monkey Valentines as well. Last year, I decided at the last minute to have a Valentine's Day potluck dinner with some of my friends and their families. We all had small children, and it was a school night, so there was no going out. This year we decided to make it a tradition. Again, it was a lot of fun!

I hope that you enjoyed your Valentine's Day. Have a Love Monkey on me!

Smiles!

Dianne

on blogging and witty cleverness

I had the grandest of plans for my blog in this new year. I would be witty, clever, wise and entertaining. People would flock to my blog in droves and put links to my blog all over the 'Net. Ah well. Such is the realites of life. When I have time to blog, all I can think to write are the more banal details of my life. Things like: "Today I did the dishes. Again. And changed diapers. Again. And went to McD's/BK for french fries for my 3 yo who won't eat much else. Again. And.....yadda yadda yadda. Just not very interesting, I'm afraid. My life revolves around being a Mom.

That's not to say that there aren't some amazing moments about being a Mom. Like when your nearly teenage daughter comes to you for hugs and wants to just talk about her life. Or when your 8yo reads to you instead of the other way around. Or when your 3 year old's whole world lights up just because you walked in the door. When only Mommy will make things better and restore justice and balance to the universe. When your three year old who has struggled with expressive language for more than a year suddenly starts talking out of the blue and you understand what he is saying and can acutally have a conversation about things that are important to three year olds. When your twelve year old daughter wants you to arrange it so she can dance with the boy she has a crush on at the church "Let's learn to Swing Dance" youth activity. When everything is mostly picked up and quiet and peaceful and happy. When you are playing games and laughing and creating family inside jokes. Those are good times.

But are they clever and witty enough for a blog? Does that even matter? My blog first and foremost should be for me, right? I'm learning that just taking the time to write, to write anything really, helps me grow and practice my skills and to remember the moments that were breathtaking, frustrating, infuriating, tiring, beautiful, precious and wonderful. Just writing something can make a difference somewhere, somewhen. Writing something simply has to be enough.

And that's the other side.

A Layout

Remember my post last November about "the Busy Season"? Well, here is a layout from that day. (And, as soon as I change some settings, I'll link you to that post....)

That's all for now!

some new pictures from the park

playing around w/my new camera and the 50mm 1.8 lens.....I took 195 pictures in about an hour. What a burst feature this camera has! It was fun!

Kits for Sale!

If anyone out there would like a kit for my "A Year in the Life Mini Book," please leave a comment and let me know. Kits include a handmade blank mini book (16 pages, made with Bazzill), 8 6"x12" sheets of patterned paper (the black and white Junkitz paper), 15 inches of ribbon, a "graphics sheet" of pre-printed titles and such, a customized Dymo Label saying "The ___ Family", and a VERY detailed instruction sheet (with pictures! and sketches!). Cost is $10.00 plus actual shipping. I don't have a large corner rounder right now, so the corners of your books won't be rounded. Sorry. I take paypal at DianneKNelson@yahoo.com. {These are only a few of the pages in the album.}

Smiles!

Dianne

So

So I can't really think of anything to say.

I'm busy today preparing for my classes at Stampin'Cat on Saturday. Seems like I'm crazybuzy....I need to create a couple of more handouts, and finish two mini-albums for my Feburary Paper School class. And when I mean finish, well, one of them isn't really started.

I had this fallacy that when I was a stay-at-home-mom, I'd have all of this time. I'd have a clean house. I'd have time for my hobbies. I'd have time to work out every day. I'd take lots of naps because I had all of this free time. Well, I've been a SAHM (well, 'cause of the store more of a Work-at-home-mom) for about four years now, and I've yet to see much of this elusive free time. I know I'm not the only woman in this situation either. Where did all of the time go?

For me, I know that a lot of my time has been slowly chewed up by lots of volunteer work. I work with the youth group at Church specfically the 14 and 15 yo girls. This takes the bulk of my Thursday nights and some of my Sunday as well. Plus there are various planning/presidency/organizing meetings scattered here and there. And quarterly, I chaperone a youth dance. And now I'm helping out with the annual summer Girls Camp, so that's another meeting. I do a lot with my church. I lead choirs, sing, help out whereever I'm needed. It's all good work, but it does take a lot of my time.

I'm also on the design team for the ScrappersChallenge yahoo group. This is a very large group that will be moving to it's own website in the next few months. While I am thrilled with this honer, it does come with specific responsibilities, like writing articles and working with monthly kits, and so forth. I moderate or help moderate a couple of other scrapbooking groups, specifically ScrapbookTalk and ScrappingReflections. More time. Small bits of time here and there can add up to a lot at the end of the day.

I also teach 3-4 classes a month for Stampin' Cat. I'm learning that this realistically needs 10-15 hrs a month prep time, as well as the 6-8 hours of teaching, as each class is 2 hours each. Plus the store is about 25 minutes away from my house, one way, so if I am dropping off samples, etc., that's an hour of drive time alone. If you total it all up, that's about twenty to twenty-five hours each month or 4-5 hours each week of work (or with me, it's 10 hours of prep time the week of my classes or about 15 hours that one week 'cause I didn't spread out my work) not counting any drive time.

Speaking of drive time, my youngest ds has been diagnosed with a Speech Communication Disorder. This is really not much more than a fancy way of saying, "he's a little behind in his speech." Not enough to be very worrisome (especially when you are looking at the long run of things) but enough to qualify for free preschool through the county (Yes! A nice side benefit of paying taxes). Well, his preschool is 25 minutes away from my house as well (the OTHER direction, so not really easy to combine trips) so every Tuesday and Thursday, I get to spend an hour in the car dropping him off. He takes the bus home.

Throw in a little volunteer work teaching music at the elementary school (I'm teaching one Kindergarten class this year), driving for taekwondo classes, scouts, grocery shopping, library trips, and so on, and then add on the demands of keeping house for and feeding five people, and you can see where the time goes. It's also important to me to have time for myself, for reading and scripture study. And for naps. Naps are good.

So where does your time go? Personally I hate the phrase "waste time." Time is too precious to waste. Sometimes we spend it too frivolously as well. I think as part of my challenge to "DO" this year, I'm going to pay attention to how I am spending my time. Maybe through careful budgeting, I can find some more of it.

And that's the other side.

I thought of a few more....

DO take more pictures
DO make financial decisions from a place of wisdom
DO improve my relationship with my Heavenly Father
DO send handmade birthday cards to my family and extended family and friends
DO sleep when I'm tired and give my body the rest it needs
DO spend less time on the computer
DO sew more and beautify my home
DO support my friends and their hobbies and interests
DO start some kind of "girlfriends" club

more later!

Do

So Ali challenged the world at large to think of a word to sum up their year. She talked about how her last year's word was "play" and how it really blessed her life last year, and that this year, she was going for "peace." She's expecting us to have layouts and stuff talking about our word. I don't have a layout yet, but I do have a word.

I started first thinking about things like "balance," "action," "self," and things like that, to go with my resolution for self-improvement this year. For awhile, I was seriously considering "wisdom," since I want many of my choices this year to come from a place of wisdom. Finally, I decided on "Do."

"Do" is a very good word. It can be used to give permission, like "Do enjoy some refreshments." It can be almost a command, like in Nike's famous "Just Do It" ad campaign. It can be an action word--"What do you do?" "Go do something!" For me, as my word of the year it's a frame of mind, a motivation. What it boils down to is this: I want to DO things I have previously only talked about doing. I want to stop talking about things. I want to do.

Do start a lifelong exercise program
Do learn new skills
Do pursue my scrapbooking goals
Do yell at my children less
Do take them more places
Do make food choices from a place of wisdom
Do love my hubby more
Do work for long-held goals
Do start writing stories and books and essays
Do have more regular blog posts
Do sleep more
Do keep a tidier house
Do remember the wonder of it all
Do put action behind my dreams

I hope that all of my readers will give themselves a wonderful new year. With permission to do.

And that's the other side.